Australians to be charged $1000 to get out of coronavirus-infected Wuhan

Australians seeking to get on a potential Qantas 747 jet to get to Christmas Island will need to pay for their evacuation and sign a waiver | READ THE WAIVER

Australian evacuees looking to get out of coronavirus-epicentre Wuhan will have to pay up to $1000 to get to Christmas Island.

Government sources confirmed that the $1000 figure was the closest “ballpark” for evacuees seeking to get on a potential Qantas 747 jet.

The Australian has confirmed that the government still has not been given the green light from China to evacuate Australian citizens, but expects permission to be granted soon.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton earlier on Thursday said it was normal procedure for evacuees to cover their own costs.

“People have to pay for the flight from China back to Australia. That’s, as I’m advised by DFAT, the normal way in which these things occur and that will be the limit of the contribution,” he said.

In Wuhan, they have been asked to pay $1000 and sign a waiver stating that they agree to be quarantined at the Christmas Island detention centre for up to 14 days.

Read the waiver here

One parent with Australian children trapped in Wuhan revealed to The Australian that she was told by Australian diplomats that the evacuation plan was to fly Wuhan to Christmas Island, and after clearance, fly to Perth, but “you need to buy your own flight tickets from Perth to your city”.

They have also been told to manage their own way to Wuhan airport before boarding as the city’s public transport and shared-cars are suspended and private cars are restricted on the road.

The mother, who is a Chinese citizen on an Australian permanent residence visa was also advised that it is still under discussion whether parents who are Chinese citizens are allowed to leave Wuhan with their Australian children, and it is up to the Chinese government.

There is still discussion over which Qantas jet will go to Wuhan, if Chinese approval is given. Qantas originally said it would be a 747 but that plane is too large to land on Christmas Island’s runway.

About 50 Qantas flight attendants have volunteered to crew the rescue flight from Wuhan in China, where hundreds of Australians are stranded after transport out of the city was banned due to the coronavirus outbreak.

A meeting today between the Flight Attendants Association of Australia and Qantas reached agreement, after assurances the risk of contracting coronavirus was low.

FAAA national secretary Teri O’Toole said medical officers and Australian government officials would also be on board the flight to Darwin, with crew to be provided with face masks and individual hand sanitiser dispensers.

Evacuees may have to get off at a mainland tarmac - most likely Darwin - and then be flown to the Christmas Island processing centre.

New Zealand announced Thursday it will charter a 300-seat aircraft to evacuate nationals from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

There are 53 New Zealanders confirmed to be in Wuhan but the actual number is believed to be more than double that.

“New Zealand will be offering any additional seats to Pacific Island and Australian citizens as a matter of priority,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters said, adding that the flight was still subject to China’s approval.

“This is a complex operation as we work through all the necessary requirements but we are working to have the aircraft depart as soon as possible.” The announcement to charter an aircraft from Air New Zealand, part-owned by the government, came a day after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her government was working with Canberra to assist the departure of New Zealanders and Australians from Wuhan.

Two Australians in China contract virus

Meanwhile, a pair of Australian citizens have contracted coronavirus in China, but have not sought the Australian government’s help.

There are now 170 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus — mainly in Hubei province — and almost 8000 cases worldwide, with recent visitors to Wuhan being advised by Australian health authorities to stay at home from work and school for two weeks as part of self-quarantining.

Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed on Thursday morning that two Australians in Guangdong Province had caught the disease, as he continues to battle the spread of coronavirus domestically.

“My advice before coming to this event from the national incident centre in our morning briefing is that two Australians did contract the virus in Guangdong province,” Mr Hunt said in Sydney.

“They have been treated and the advice that I have - and I would want to be cautious on this - is that they have been released and are not seeking consular assistance at this stage.”

There have been eight confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia,

A third case of Coronavirus was tonight confirmed in Victoria, taking the national toll to eight.

A Chinese woman in her 40s, a visitor from Hubei province, is in a stable condition with the respiratory illness, Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services confirmed.

She was confirmed positive on Thursday following a series of tests.

A 44-year-old Chinese national was being treated in isolation in the Gold Coast University Hospital on Wednesday night.

Restaurant warning after diner tests positive

Earlier on Thursday Victorian health authorities warned that diners at a Melbourne Chinese restaurant may have been exposed to the coronavirus when a man who ate there tested positive for the virus.

Results are pending for four of five relatives who had dinner with the man, confirmed to be the second person testing positive for the deadly coronavirus in Victoria.

The state’s health department said on Wednesday night that the man in his 60s had become infected while travelling in China’s Hubei province. The department said the man started to feel unwell on January 23 and had remained isolated since then, but he had dinner with his family on Australia Day.

The Victorian resident visited The House Of Delight restaurant in Glen Waverley with his five family members between 5.30pm and 7pm on January 26. Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Dr Brett Sutton urged anyone who was at the restaurant during this time to be aware of symptoms and to contact the department on 1300-651-160 for advice. Diners who left booking details will be contacted by the department.

The House of Delight restaurant in Montclair Avenue, Glen Waverley.

The Glen Waverley restaurant is closed and a sign on the door says it will stay shut until Sunday, February 9.

The second case in Victoria, along with Queensland’s first case confirmed on Wednesday evening, raised the national count to seven.

Sign on the door of the House of Delight.

The government denies it has not responded as swiftly to the ­crisis as Japan and the US, which have already extracted some of their citizens by air, while several South Koreans trapped in the central Chinese city are expected to be flown out on Thursday.

Christmas Island locals have expressed disappointment about a decision to send hundreds of ­potential coronavirus-carrying people to their doorstep, saying the island will be seen as a “leper colony”.

There are now 170 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus — mainly in Hubei province — and more 7000 cases worldwide, with recent visitors to Wuhan being advised by Australian health authorities to stay at home from work and school for two weeks as part of self-quarantining.

There have been seven confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, the latest being a 44-year-old Chinese national who was being treated in isolation in the Gold Coast University Hospital on Wednesday night.

Hopes were buoyed on Wednesday by suggestions that a vaccine to combat the outbreak and improve testing could be more swiftly developed after scientists managed to replicate the coronavirus in laboratory conditions.

The Prime Minister said any Qantas flight would be filled on a “last in/first out basis” with Australians who had been in Wuhan on a long-term basis possibly missing out. “This will be done subject obviously to working closely and with the authority and approval of the Chinese government,” he said.

“I stress there is rather a limited window here and we are moving very, very swiftly to ensure we can put this plan together and put the operation together.

“We cannot give a guarantee that this operation is able to succeed and I also want to stress very clearly that we may not be in a position if we’re able to do this on one occasion to do it on another ­occasion.”

Mr Morrison said there may be an opportunity for only one flight into Wuhan and government sources confirmed the Chinese were reluctant to allow other ­nations regular access to a heavily quarantined zone.

While Japan and the US repatriated citizens on Wednesday — although the US rescued only consular staff and their families — and South Korea is set to land a plane in Wuhan as early as Thursday, Mr Morrison denied he had been slow in arranging a rescue plan.

“What I announced (on Wednesday) morning was in train from several days ago,” he said.

“The issues in getting access to our citizens in Wuhan are different to a lot of other countries, particularly the US and others involved.”

Government sources told The Australian that Japan and South Korea had conducted speedier repatriations because they had the advantage of having consular staff on the ground in Wuhan, with Australian consular staff from Shanghai en route on Wednesday to the quarantined city.

Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce said his company was still to sort out details about how the Boeing 747 would undertake the evacuation, although it was expected health officials would be on board the plane, which can carry between 416 and 524 passengers.

“We have always been there for Australians in their time of need for getting people out of areas around the globe,” Mr Joyce said. “There are a lot of complexities around this and we are working through those complexities.”

Repatriated Australians will be accommodated in the Christmas Island processing centre used for asylum-seekers and remain in quarantine for 14 days. “The defence forces have been tasked to identify overflow facilities where that may be necessary and also to provide whatever logistical and other support is necessary to support the operations on Christmas Island,” Mr Morrison said.

“Anyone who under this plan are transported to Christmas Island would be there we envisage up to 14 days ... but that will be subject to the medical advice.”

Scott Morrison tours North West Point Detention Centre on Christmas Island in 2019. Picture: AAP

Christmas Island residents were seething after the announcement, with shire president Gordon Thomson saying successive federal governments had given the Australian territory colonialist treatment. “Now we’ll be a leper colony,” he said. “Christmas Island remains a colony and is yet again getting the old regressive colonialist treatment from the great colonial power. Get lost, Scotty.”

Small business owner Sharon Tisdale, who has lived on the island for 13 years, said she was “gobsmacked”.“The island is just getting back on its feet,” she said.

Health Minister Greg Hunt also revealed the government would release a stockpile of one million masks to GPs as it seeks to manage the crisis.

“They’ll be distributed through the primary health networks to general practises that seek or need them and if more are required, more will be provided,” he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: SIMON ORCHARD, AFP